Almost every week, I get a frantic call from someone needing my
help with their search engine results. Sadly, this is usually
motivated by bad reviews and a drop in business.

There are steps you can take to shore up the digital foundation
for your business so that bad reviews aren't the first thing
people see. Remember, it is much easier to counteract negative
search engine results if you already control most of the first
page of Google's search results for you and your business. This
process is a type of search engine optimization called
“reputation management.”

Let’s start with your website. You’d think this would go without
saying, but your website should absolutely come up as the first
result when someone searches for you or your business. Follow
these steps:

1. Make sure your business’ name is in the domain
name. If you are a professional, such as a lawyer,
you’ll need to own a domain for both your law firm and name. Your
website should be www.YourBusinessName.com. Your business’ name
should be mentioned on the homepage in words, not just the logo,
since search engines can’t “read” images. It should also appear
in the title tag of your website and in the meta description.

2. Mention your or your business’ name on the “About Us”
page. This is where you’ll get the chance to explicitly
state what your business does so the search engine can associate
it with keywords that people are actually searching for, such as
“Los Angeles dentist." Write a 500-word description of yourself
and your business. You’ll need this for the other listings
anyway, so get it done now, put it on your website, then set it
aside.

3. Put the business’ name again on the "Contact Us"
page. You’d be surprised how many people leave this off
or bury it on a page that is hard to find. Make a separate
"Contact Us" page where you again state the name of your
business, then put the address and the phone number. In an era
where more and more people are using their smartphones to look up
numbers for businesses before calling them, your website should
come up in seconds, and your phone number should be clear. If
you’re a traditional brick-and-mortar business, including your
address and phone number will help the search engines properly
match up your website with business directory listings.

4. Update the backend. You’ll want to have a
“sitemap” plugin in place so the search engines pick up every
page. If your site is built in Wordpress, I recommend Google XML
Sitemaps. If not, have your web person build a “site map” page
manually.

5. Find the Google Places/Google Plus Local Listing for
your business. Claim the page and update the information
so that it matches what’s on your website. After you’ve made sure
your business’ name and address are prominently featured on your
website, your next stop is your Google Places listing. Google
Places soon will be combined with Google+ to form “Google +
Business,” so you’ll need to figure out where your business
listing is and update it. Start here. You can also put your business’
address into https://maps.google.com and update the
listing from there.

If your business is brand new and you can’t find a Google Places
listing for it, make a Google + Business here.

6. Now move on to the Facebook Page for the
business. Your business should have a dedicated Facebook
Page, if for no other reason than you have 10 slots to fill on
Page One of Google, and each one should be one you can control.
If you haven’t already, set up a Facebook Page here. Be sure to change the username of
the page to the name of your actual business for which you’re
trying to rank. You might need to have 25 people as fans
before you do this, so make a note and go back to http://facebook.com/username once you do.
This is important because until the Facebook username is
changed, the search engines are unlikely to associate the
business with its page.

Of course, there are many other things you’ll need to find, claim
and update so that you are in charge of your Google results.
Putting a little time into this every day is a necessary part of
your business, so don’t put it off!